SAP systems are the backbone of many of the world’s most critical industrial, financial, and core infrastructure systems. Unfortunately, they are also an attractive target for cyber attacks. As Avantra.com explains, customers often don’t identify security weaknesses in the tech workings and modules of SAP infrastructures and insufficient configurations.
SAP has released its security baseline to protect against all known SAP security risks. However, three common misconceptions still haunt SAP Landscape protection. These misconceptions are discussed in this article.
Common Misconceptions About SAP Landscape Protection
The SAP security baseline is a relatively new technology. For this reason, there are several misconceptions about this subject. Below are the most common ones;
Protection is all About Systems
One of the most common misconceptions about this subject is that security is all about systems. Most organizations believe that if the systems are protected, then the data stored in them is secure, and the risks of information leakage are minimal. Therefore, they assume that securing the systems that store vital information is sufficient.
However, this is far from the truth. SAP intends to transform business models, processes, and IT operations. Therefore, SAP incorporates all facets of a business process and stores high-value data. In a nutshell, it is not about an organization’s structures but the chain.
It is all About Vulnerability and Security Monitoring
Many companies have recognized the threats surrounding technology and applications and how they can provide unauthorized access to sensitive data and organization processes. For this reason, most of these companies have implemented vulnerability and security monitoring tools. While these tools are great, they should not focus on detecting the use vulnerabilities but should also concentrate on attack vectors.
Security is Centered Around Compliance
In 2014, SAP released a comprehensive security baseline template to describe the applications of patches and individual security notes. However, the document has been criticized for featuring 93 slides and being almost impossible to implement. SAP users have also complained of being unable to keep up with the pace of new patches and releases. SAP releases about forty new patches monthly. Therefore, users believe they cannot achieve adequate protection without complying with the patch frequency and the baseline.
However, even if you comply with the baseline, it will not guarantee your protection against the most popular types of attacks, like impersonation. During impersonation attacks, attackers trick SAP users into installing an infected software so they can access the system as the tricked end-user. They proceed to obtain unauthorized access and make modifications to critical company data. This explains how attackers highly target SAP systems as they have realized no other way to get around SAP security. For this reason, SAP landscape protection is vital. It prevents attacks from within the system. Therefore, even if intruders or impersonators get it, they cannot accomplish an attack.
About SAP Security Landscape Protection
SAP security was traditionally centered around approval or permission management and the isolation of duties among business operators. For this reason, numerous SAP experts still define security as the process of forming and handling roles to limit user activities over organizational data. While this remains a significant part of the SAP model, the technology has grown significantly, and this definition does not address many other security threats. For instance, it does not address the security vulnerabilities in the technological elements of SAP infrastructures and inadequate configurations. Sadly, most customers do not recognize that SAP tools can also cause security vulnerabilities.
A lot of cyber attackers target SAP infrastructures to infiltrate business structures. Some of these attackers may be rogue SAP users, insiders, or spies in an organization. Other attackers may come from outside the organization. However, they perform the attacks by impersonating someone with access to the SAP system. Since they have access to the SAP tools, conventional SAP security does not apply to them. For this reason, SAP initiated landscape protection.
Many businesses encounter cyber attacks. These attacks cause damage to businesses and reputations and rob companies of their clients. SAP security was established to protect companies from cyber attacks by minimizing access to company data, monitoring threats and vulnerabilities, and protecting critical organizational information. However, this has proven insufficient as some cyber-attacks occur from within. For this reason, the SAP landscape security was launched.
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